Sometimes landing a new startup job in London (or anywhere in the UK) can feel a bit like making some new friends who already have a lottttttt of obnoxious in-jokes and references. Luckily, Work In Startups is here to help bust that jargon today. Have a flick through our quick A-Z so you don’t feel like an outsider at your local Shoreditch flat-white dispensary! […]

Jargon Buster: The Work In Startups “A-Z” of Startup Terminology

Sometimes landing a new startup job in London (or anywhere in the UK) can feel a bit like making some new friends who already have a lottttttt of obnoxious in-jokes and references. Luckily, Work In Startups is here to help bust that jargon today. Have a flick through our quick A-Z so you don’t feel like an outsider at your local Shoreditch flat-white dispensary!

A

Angel Investor

A private individual who invests capital (usually in the early stages of a startup), generally in exchange for equity.Accelerator – investment-fund program that provide funding and mentorship to budding startups in exchange for a stake

B

Burn Rate

The amount of cash a startup is spending each monthBootstrapping – initial funding stage of a startup deploying only your personal savings or with help from friends and family (rather than angel or seed investment)

C

Cash Flow Positive

(The dream!) When a startup’s cash coming in is greater than its cash going out. Note this is different to being profitable!

D

Disruptive

A product or service that aims / is about to (hopefully) change or revolutionise an existing industry. A buzzword in the startup world!

E

Equity

Several geeky accounting definitions, but generally in startups equity refers to the relative amount (share) someone owns in the company

F

Freemium

When your core produce or service is free, but there are premium / non-free features available which are designed to improve the user experience even furtherFrontend – the pretty face of software engineering (obviously so much more that). In short: the bit on startup websites that you (the user) see and interact with! It runs in tandem with the Backend which does the heavy lifting behind the scenes

G

Growth Hacking

A startup marketing term focused around experimentation on growth strategy – working out ways to acquire as many users as quickly / cheaply as possibleGamification – implementing elements or features you would find in a game in a non-gaming productGA – (Google Analytics) this is the big boy for tracking just about anything activity-related on a website. Given its heavy use, “GA” is an easier term to spit out!

H

Hockey Stick

A growth curve on a chart – an initial dip (where you’re investing) followed by a strong upward trajectory, leaving the progress line looking a bit like a hockey stick!

I

IPO

An “Initial Public Offering” – the first time a startup (or any company) lists its shares on a public stock market

J

Javascript/Java/JS

One of the most commonly recognised programming languages – generally if you see knowledge of this as a requirement for a startup job and you don’t know what it means, don’t apply for it!

K

KPI

Key Performance Indicators – a measurable value tracked by a startup to gauge progress. When the name of the game is growth, we are slaves to the KPIs!

L

Low-Hanging Fruit

The easiest, quickest wins available in a given project. Essentially the fruit you don’t have to climb too high (or work too hard) to collectLiquidity Event – some form of opportunity for investors to cash in their stake, therefore turning some (or all) of their assets on paper into “liquid” cashLifetime Value – the prediction of value you expect a customer (or supplier) relationship to generate over the whole of its existence. So hopefully more than just one transaction

M

MVP

Minimum Viable Product – the most basic version of the product that can viably work and be rolled-out, it often gets expanded with new features later on. Minotaur – a startup that has raised $1bn+ from investors (it might not necessarily be worth that much to prospective buyers!)

N

Ninja

A very startuppy title for a supposed expert in a field (e.g. after reading this article , you’ll be a startup lingo ninja!)

O

(Stock/Equity) Options

An agreement giving someone (most likely a startup employee or investor) the option to purchase shares in a company at a given strike price (which you can then hopefully sell later for a profit). You might well get offered these when you join a startup – take them!OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – tangible goal-setting framework. You set your objective and then pick the metrics (key results) that will quantify your progress

P

Pre & Post Money Valuations

Terms referring to the valuation of a startup before investment or financing and then after (after factoring in the new cash). ProductManager – the person responsible for developing the product, owning the business strategy, features and functionality! Pivot – a shift (quite often a significant one) in business model following feedback on / performance of an initial product

Q

QA Testing

Quality Assurance Testing. This is basic testing of the product, usually with an eye on user experience – think beta-tests and bugchecks a-plenty!

R

ROI

Return-on-Investment. At a very high level, and without getting too geeky about it, this is something that investors will monitor to determine the efficiency (usually financial) of a given investment. Bigger ROI generally means a better use of their funds!

S

Seed Round

The first round of external capital funding for a startup.SEM/SEO – Search Engine Marketing/Optimization – two distinct areas, but both relate to promoting a startup’s product by increasing its visibility on search engines. Best ask your marketing team directly if you want to learn more about the nuances (as there are many!)

T

Traction

A sign that all your startups growth efforts are taking effect, and whether people are actually buying or using the product..

U

Unicorn

A term to refer to startups that have been given a $1 billion valuation. Note this doesn’t have to have been realised in cash!

V

VC

Venture Capital. In a nutshell, this is financial investment (or investors) in startups that are looking for high growth opportunities in exchange for equitySilicon Valley – The name given to an area in the southern San Francisco Bay where lots of startups and tech companies are based.

W

Waterfall

The “last in, first out” order that investors often get their money in a liquidity event. Those coming later to the table have often had the opportunity to negotiate better terms for themselves since they can see what others have committed to!

X

Xenopus

A startup that has grown revenue at over 100% a year…. Just kidding (unless it catches on)! It’s actually a weird frog – it’s hard to find an X word for this list!

Y

Y-Combinator

Y-Combinator is a big seed accelerator with many ‘y-backed’ startups in their portfolio… (Cut us some slack, Y is hard too!)

Z

Zebra

A term used to refer to startups focused more on building a sustainable growth business than a “boom or bust” approach

The Worst Offender: Tech Startups

You’d hope that most of these are self-explanatory, but here are a few of the most common tech startup fields / buckets with definitions to help you out: